Warner Bros is going back to Control. Deadline reports that John Mulaney is in the frame to play Agent Maxwell Smart in a new take on Get Smart, the Mel Brooks and Buck Henry spy spoof that ran for 138 episodes between 1965 and 1970.
The project is early. Seth Grahame-Smith is writing the screenplay, with Chuck Roven and Andrew Lazar producing – the same producing pair behind the studio’s 2008 feature version starring Steve Carell.
The number that matters: $230.6M
The 2008 Get Smart opened to $38.6M in North America, finished with $130.3M domestic and $230.6M worldwide. That was a summer tentpole slot for a mid-budget comedy – a release strategy that has effectively disappeared from studio calendars over the last decade, with comedy largely migrating to streaming originals and stand-up specials.
So the interesting question isn’t whether audiences remember Agent 86. It’s whether Warner Bros believes theatrical comedy can clear nine figures again, or whether this is being built with a streaming window front of mind. Nothing in the reporting settles that yet, and that ambiguity is the story for anyone tracking studio slate strategy.
Why Mulaney is the interesting variable
Mulaney is not a conventional four-quadrant movie star. He is something arguably more measurable: a proven ticket-seller with a hard data trail.
- He became the first comedian to headline Wrigley Field this summer – and sold it out.
- He has announced Mulaney Takes Manhattan, nine shows across nine New York venues from January 7-15, running from the Comedy Cellar and Blue Note up to Carnegie Hall, Radio City and a Madison Square Garden finale, as part of his Mister Whatever tour.
- He has four Emmys, including writing wins for Baby J (2023), Kid Gorgeous at Radio City (2018) and the SNL 50th Anniversary special (2025), plus a 2011 music and lyrics win.
- He has hosted Saturday Night Live six times, and next appears in Amazon MGM’s David O. Russell film Madden, with Nicolas Cage as John Madden.
That is a modern comedy career profile: live touring revenue, streaming specials, awards credibility, and a loyal audience that shows up in venues you can count. For studios trying to de-risk comedy, an audience with verifiable ticket demand is worth more than generic likeability.
The writer’s track record
Grahame-Smith brings the strongest recent commercial signal on the package. He has a story credit on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which crossed $452M worldwide, wrote Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (close to $247M globally) and The Lego Batman Movie (over $312M worldwide). Those are all IP-revival plays – which is precisely the muscle a Get Smart reboot needs.
The IP argument, and its limits
Get Smart has been rebooted repeatedly with mixed results: the 1980 feature The Nude Bomb, the 1989 TV movie Get Smart, Again!, a seven-episode Fox revival in 1995, then the 2008 film. Only the last one delivered real box office. The pattern is instructive – nostalgia titles perform when the casting and tone match the moment, not because the title is familiar.
What to watch next
For media planners and acquisition teams, three markers will tell you how seriously to take this:
First, whether Mulaney’s deal closes – as of the report he is only circling. Second, the budget tier: a sub-$60M comedy behaves very differently from a $100M-plus action-comedy. Third, whether Warner Bros dates it for summer, the slot it used in 2008, or treats it as a shoulder-season or hybrid release. Each choice reveals what the studio actually thinks theatrical comedy is worth in 2026.
Source: Deadline
